Somanatha Swami Temple - An Eternal Place!


(Picture Courtesy: Mentioned in the image.)

In this blog, we will read about a temple named Somanathaswami temple which is located in a village named Needur in Mayiladuthrai district of Tamil Nadu. This place is referred to as Sapthapuri. The presiding deity is Lord Shiva in the form of Somanathaswami and His consort is Devi Veyurutholi Amman.

Needur means eternal. It is believed that even Pralaya could not destroy this place, hence it came to be called as Needur. 

There are many interesting legends associated with this place. 

The sins of a demon named Manmasudhan caused his rebirth as a crab. The demon requested Rishi Narada for help. The Rishi guided him to pray to Lord Shiva. Accordingly the demon in the form of a crab came to Cauvery and bathed in the holy water and prayed to Lord Shiva who was immensely pleased with him. The Lord decided to take the crab into His own form to grant liberation to Manmasudhan. A hole formed in the lingam and the crab happily merged into it, becoming one with the Lord. It is believed that this hole can still be seen in the lingam of this temple. 

As per another legend, Lord Indra could not get a lingam to worship as he was roaming in the earth one morning. He collected sand from the Cauvery river and made a lingam out of it. He prayed to Lord Shiva and sang a song, requesting for a vision of the Lord. Pleased with his worship, Lord Shiva appeared before Indra and danced in happiness, thereby earning the name Gana Nardana Shankara. After getting a vision of the Lord, Indra left for his kingdom, leaving behind the lingam that he had created around which this temple was later built. It is believed that the lingam still carries the marks of Indra's fingers. 

The deity of the Devi in this temple has been worshipped by the sun-god Aditya. Hence She is also called as Aditya Varada Ambica. Although there is no separate shrine for the Navagrahas in this temple, there is a shrine for Shani Dev placed opposite to the shrine for Devi, thereby enabling the devotees to see both Devi and Shani Dev simultaneously and to get rid of any negative planetary influence.

Lord Vinayaka is worshipped in three forms in this temple - as Chintamani Vinayaka, Selva Maha Vinayaka and Shivananda Vinayaka. People pray to Lord Vinayaka here before starting any project or business to get His blessings. 

The procession deity of the temple is a soldier named Munayaduvar who served in the king's army and who, with his income, helped in renovation and maintainance of the temple. Lord Shiva accepted him as one among His 63 prime devotees (called Nayanmars). Munayaduvar has a shrine in the temple.

The temple has shrines for Shivalokanathar, Kasi Vishwanathar, Kailasanathar, Natarajar, Ananda-tandava murthy, Chinmayananda Vinayaka, Muruga and Saptha Kanikas. 

Om Somanathaaya Namaha! Om Ambikaaya Namaha!


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